Category: Nintendo News

Sonic Forces is out very soon and plenty are keen to see how it shapes up on the Switch. To that end SEGA has released a demo on the Japanese eShop, which is nice. You only get to try stages for one minute at a time, however, which is downright goofy.

There are three stages available – one boss fight, one fast-paced Sonic level and one with a choice of three pre-designed avatars. Weirdly every time you kick off a stage the one minute countdown begins; when that hits zero you get this screen.

You then get a cinematic (likely a good chunk of the download) and the chance to start again (from the beginning) on any of the stages. On the one hand it’s nice to play them as many times as you want, but that one minute countdown means you can’t get far.

It’s a tad bizarre, but it’s easy to find if you want to play it. You’ll need a Japanese My Nintendo account to link into a user on your Switch – hop into the Japanese eShop and scroll to the fourth category down. Select the Sonic Forces page and then tap the orange button on the right – that’s it!

It’s a strange demo, and after a brief playthrough this scribe is a tad concerned at its performance on Switch – but it’s only a brief taste. Let us know if you’ve tried it out in the comments.

Hat tip to Tsurii for the heads up.

We had a slightly odd ‘Tips from the Wild’ news post on Switch recently, in that it didn’t bother offering any gifts. Nintendo has decided to be generous again in the most recent post for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, however, offering Switch owners a freebie if they boot the game from the relevant post.

When it comes to fishing some may just throw bombs into the water, which is admittedly cruel, inelegant and mightily effective. As an alternative you can tempt fish by dropping the relevant food – to do this the gift includes a Voltfuit, Cool Safflina and Spicy Pepper with which to experiment.

Or you can use bombs, whatever works for you.

It’s been a fascinating launch year to date for the Nintendo Switch, and the big N’s marketing for the system has also been pretty decent. For one thing it’s figured out what Sony and Microsoft grasped years ago – if you want kids to think your system is cool, use stereotypically ‘cool’ people to advertise it. In other words, photogenic young adults, or ‘millennials’ if you can say the term and avoid your eyeballs rolling out of your head.

Earlier in the year we saw some neat competitive gaming-themed trailers advertising the likes of Splatoon 2 and ARMS, and now Nintendo of America is pushing its ‘close call’ TV adverts. These are focused on adventure-style titles, namely Fire Emblem Warriors, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Check out the most recent below.

This followed another earlier this week focused primarily on Warriors.

We think they’re quite fun as TV commercials; what do you think?

Japanese company Experience has announced that it is bringing Death Mark to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2018.

Originally released on the PS Vita, Death Mark – or Shiin as it is known in Japan – sees you assuming the role of a character who has been branded with the titular mark, which means they will soon die. The game takes place in a mysterious mansion where others branded with this “Death Mark” have come together to find a solution.

Both the PlayStation 4 and Switch versions will showcase new high-resolution graphics, additional episodes and an “Event Gallery.” The Sony version is due for release in January 2018, but the Switch version will come later in the Spring.

It’s not known if Death Mark will receive a western release.

Avoiding major spoilers for Super Mario Odyssey is becoming harder and harder with each passing day; there have been several reports of stores breaking the street date of the game and more than a few members of the public have now received their copies earlier than planned. Some players are seizing the opportunity for their fifteen minutes of fame by uploading every little detail about the game online and Nintendo has, perhaps unsurprisingly, taken some pretty serious action.

One such case is a YouTube user from Hong Kong who decided to live stream the game for a whole hour. Nintendo seems to have swooped in rather swiftly; all videos by the user that contained footage of the game have been entirely removed from the site and he has been banned from accessing his account for three months. Apparently the streamer in question received his copy of the game early, and legitimately, from a retailer who released its allocated copies early. 

This makes the situation all the more interesting; by receiving a legitimate retail copy from a store, the YouTube user is technically under no obligation to not talk about, or show, the game’s content. Whilst Nintendo are infamously strict when it comes to what is, or isn’t, allowed to be uploaded to the site, it is clear that the severity of this particular punishment is centred around the fact that Odyssey is still yet to be released.

Of course, official media outlets who receive early copies of games such as this will agree to embargo terms, ensuring that Nintendo has control over which details about the game are, and aren’t, shown to the public before release. As the streamer has supposedly received a real, retail copy, however, it might seem like a rather harsh punishment; some might say that stores releasing copies of the game early should be more to blame as they will be breaching part of a contract in order to do so.

Either way, if you’re hoping to avoid any spoilers of the game yourself before its release, make sure to be careful when browsing online over the next few days – there will be nothing of the sort here on Nintendo Life so you are safe here! Until then, what are your thoughts on Nintendo’s actions in this case – too harsh, or completely justified? Let us know your (spoiler free) thoughts in the comments.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp may only be due at the end of November, but it’s already available in Australia; you can even grab it yourself right now if you’re willing to jump through a few hoops. Thankfully, we’re here to make that process a little easier.

Here’s how you can get Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on your iOS or Android device right now.

How to install Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on iPhone

First of all you’re going to need a Mac or PC with iTunes and a little bit of patience. Open the app store on iTunes, make sure you’ve logged out of your real Apple ID and scroll right down to the bottom right hand corner where you should see a little flag corresponding with your country of residence. Click that and scroll further to select Australia.

Then you need to find Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and attempt to download it. We couldn’t find it by searching but if you find Super Mario Run and click on the text underneath the title that says ‘Nintendo co., Ltd’ it’ll be there are the top of the list. Because you’re not logged in it’ll ask you to sign into your account, but instead select ‘Create New Apple ID’. Agree to the terms and conditions that you’ve almost certainly read thoroughly and start inputting an email address and password. You’ll have to use an email address that isn’t registered to a current Apple ID.

Fill in the rest of the page truthfully or however you see fit and then move on. You’ll be asked for payment information, but because you tried to download a free app ‘None’ should be highlighted automatically. This is what you want, as otherwise you’d have to input genuine Australian credit card details. Under billing address any first and surname will do.

For the billing address you’ll need to input a real location and postal code. We recommend looking one up on Google Maps and simply copying down everything you see, but try to be discreet.

Once you’ve verified your account you’re all done! Simply log into this new Apple ID on your iOS device and download the app. When it requires updating in the future you’ll need to sign back into this account so make sure you write the login details down on a piece of paper to be extra safe.

How to install Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on Android

Android’s open nature means that installing is a little easier than it is on iOS and doesn’t involve creating dummy accounts or making your phone think you’re in another part of the world. However, it does come with some risks which have to be considered before proceeding.

On iOS, your only option – unless you’re willing to “jailbreak” your phone – is to use the App Store to obtain the game. However, on Android it’s possible to download the installation file (known as an .apk) from the internet and “side-load” it onto your Android device – this basically involves disabling the security measure which prevents you from installing apps outside of the Google Play store.

Most Android phones have side-loading disabled by default, so you’ll need to go to Settings, then Security (this might be listed as Privacy on some handsets) and tick the box next to “Unknown Sources”. You’ll get a message which states that the installation of applications outside of the Google Play store comes with obvious risks (such as viruses and malware) – so we’d like to state that we cannot be held responsible for any issues beyond this point.

Various sites online offer apk files for download, and in this case there’s no real ethical issue as Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is a free-to-play title and doesn’t cost money. However, due to the fact that these sites also offer apps and games that are normally paid-for, we won’t be linking to any in this guide. Type “Animal Crossing Pocket Camp apk” into Google and you’ll no doubt find several sites offering the file. Which one you choose is very much up to you, and done at your own discretion.

Even though you’ve side-loaded the game, when it does eventually become available in your region it will receive updates and your user data will be carried over – you don’t have to worry about losing progress by installing the game early. The title is listed on Google Play now but can only be downloaded in Australia – but by all means add it to your wish list so you can grab the update the moment it goes live.

Or you can wait until late November, the choice is yours.

---

Finally, it’s worth noting that only Australian My Nintendo accounts can login for the related bonuses and features. You can either ignore this and just sign in when the game launches properly in your territory, or you can create an Australian My Nintendo account. However, if you want to really get into the My Nintendo side of the app it may be best to wait until it launches formally where you live.

So, will you give this a try or just wait for the app to be released globally?

Some observant readers will have seen, in our recent ‘Out Today’ post, that we were both amused and baffled by the ‘Just Mario’ song that’s found in Just Dance 2018. Ubisoft’s trailer for the routine certainly caught our eye, in any case.

If you want to know just how Mario dances when trying to impress Princess Peach, NintenDaan has posted the routine on his channel so that we can all see those funky moves. Although the iffy effects suggest the dancer was wearing normal motion-capture gear when performing this for the game, we like to think someone did it in one of those oversized mascot outfits.

Enjoy.

This song isn’t on the disc, is should be noted, but has to be accessed via the Just Dance Unlimited service; there are free trial periods available.

Now excuse us, we need to practice some moves.

In the wee hours of the morning (UK time, at least) Nintendo lifted the lid on its next mobile title, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.

It’s not officially coming until November, but the app has gone live on the Australian Google Play and iOS App Stores, which means you can download and play it right now if you happen to live in that part of the world.

If you don’t, then your options are a little more limited; there are means of side-loading the app on Android devices but if you do this you cannot currently link your Nintendo Account to the game, as it only supports Australian accounts at present.

If you decide to take the plunge, let us know by posting a comment.

Earlier today Nintendo of Europe launched its Halloween sale and, although there are some decent options, we’d suggest it lacked many knockout deals. Nintendo of America hasn’t branded a range of discounts in the same way, but did publish a News post on the Switch with some rad artwork.

The article is pointing users to the ‘Games on Sale’ category in the eShop that was added just over a week ago, and the list of games has been updated to match up with quite a few of those European Switch ‘Halloween’ discounts. A couple of these deals have been around for longer while a number are new, so below is the full current list of discounts on the North American Switch eShop (US prices).

The Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove discount is also the same on 3DS and Wii U.

A handful of other discounts available on 3DS and Wii U in Europe as part of the Halloween deals have also filtered across to North America, albeit not all of them. Nintendo of America may yet kick off a formal Halloween promotion, of course, time will tell.

Are any of you tempted by the current Switch eShop discounts?